Archive for the ‘North Carolina’ Category

The Council of the District of Columbia unanimously voted, today July 12th, to close the DC SREC market to out-of-state systems. The Distributed Generation Amendment Act of 2011 (Bill 19-10) increases the SREC requirement in 2011 as well as establishes an SACP schedule through 2023. Once in effect, the bill will allow out-of-state systems registered prior to 1/31/2011 to continue to sell SRECs in the DC market. The DC Public Services Commission has not provided clarification on how the bill will affect out of state systems that have already granted DC registrations after the January 31st 2011 grandfather date. For more information on the bill please refer to our previous blog postings here and here.

The bill is not yet law. It first must go through a 30-day Congressional Review process before it can go in to effect. Given these mechanistic delays we don’t expect the bill to go in to effect for at least another month.

The following chart illustrates which out-of-state systems will be effected by the legislation.

Since its inception last summer, the North Carolina SREC market has not materialized into the type of market seen in other states like New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts. There are several factors lending to the stagnation of this market, many of which were covered in our blog post “Where is the NC SREC Market?” published last August. Since then, the nascent NC market has continued to dwindle. Most small solar facilities in North Carolina have been selling their SRECs into the DC market, an opportunity that will be closing as new legislation in DC shuts the market to out-of-state facilities.

A few factors impair the viability of the North Carolina market:

1) The absence of both an SACP and transparent market prices make it difficult for projects to find viable SREC-based financing.

2) There is a shortage of buyers. The two main buyers, Duke Energy and Progress Energy, which serve 65% of NC utility customers and provide 71% of the state’s electricity, have both met their NC REPS compliance needs for solar, with Progress locking out SRECs until 2014 and Duke having ample supply through 2018, the final year of RPS compliance.

3) North Carolina accepts 25% of its SRECs from out of state sited facilities.

In an effort to curb these seemingly premature accomplishments by utilities, legislators in North Carolina introduced two important clean energy bills in the last few months: the Solar Jobs Bill (HB495/SB473) and the Energy Independence and Job Creation Bill (SB694). The former aspired to increase the solar requirement for utilities from .2% to .4% of retail electric sales by 2018 in an effort to further develop the state’s solar industry, while also requiring that no more than 12.5% of the RECs applied towards the RPS requirements come from out-of-state generators. If this bill were to pass, it would help catalyze an NC SREC market as utilities would need to find additional sources of SRECs to meet new compliance targets. To create more flexibility, the Energy Independence and Job Creation Bill allowed for “third party sales” of renewable energy, or the ability for facilities with third-party owned renewable systems to buy electricity directly from the third-party without classifying them as utilities, so long as their capacity is under 2 MW. This bill would open the North Carolina market up to third-party financing companies like SunRun, SolarCity and Sungevity, which would foster the development of solar leasing and PPAs.

Unfortunately, neither of these bills were taken up by legislators by the crossover deadline on June 9th, effectively rendering them dead until the start of the 2013 session. For now, the future remains unclear for a more active SREC market in North Carolina.

The SREC market in North Carolina has gotten off to a sluggish start and it appears that a thriving state SREC market may be a long way out. Several aspects of the program have hindered the development of a market in the state, as a result, many SREC aggregation firms and market-makers have gotten out of the state. The two key problems include a non-existent mechanism for compliance and a buyer market dominated by a few large energy producers that are not participating in the market. Local installers and developers that were hoping SRECs would be a key driving force in promoting a North Carolina solar industry are now finding themselves shut out of the market.

Enforcing ComplianceThe North Carolina law did not require that the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) set a Solar Alternative Compliance Payment (SACP) which is the fine that any energy supplier who falls short of the solar requirement would have to pay. This is a standard aspect of any SREC market where SACPs vary from as low as $250 in Delaware to as high as $675 in New Jersey. The SACP does not set the price, but acts as a cap in the market. More importantly, it creates an indication for what the SRECs are worth in years where there is an undersupply. In North Carolina, there is little incentive to offer higher SREC prices to promote growth in the industry and buyers are best served by holding prices down.

Utilities Locking Up Their Own SupplyMany investor-owned utilities claim to have locked in their own supply through the next few years and are therefore not participating in the market. Part of the reason this is happening is that North Carolina places no restrictions on the amount of solar that utilities can produce themselves. In addition, the other incentives and tax breaks combine to make solar an attractive investment for utilities. Even Green Co Solutions, the company handling NC-REPS requirements for many of North Carolina’s electricity cooperatives is already well-positioned with respect to their SREC needs. This is a stark contrast to New Jersey and other states, where the incentives are prohibitive for investor-owned utilities and, in some states, completely excluded from the SREC market. New Jersey for example will only approve solar projects from investor-owned utilities if it is determined by the Board of Public Utilities that these projects will not impact pricing in the SREC market.

What are SRECs trading for?
Utility-run programs such as Progress Energy’s Sun Sense program and Duke Energy’s Distributed Generation program provide a structured means for generating solar electricity and selling it back to the grid along with the SRECs that are produced. These programs offer prices of $120 to $180 for bundled electricity and SRECs, resulting in SREC valuations in the $60-$120 range. These programs limit projects to 25kW to 210 kW, a range that is too large for residential solar companies and too small for most commercial developers. Although there have been SREC contracts struck with these large utilities, any agreements have all been done behind-closed doors with little or no transparency as to what pricing is being offered.

Who is faring well in North Carolina?
Despite the relatively non-existent NC SREC market, smaller solar systems in North Carolina have found successful ways to take advantage of SREC programs. Most notably, these systems have the opportunity to sell their SREC production into a small but more favorable Washington DC SREC market. In addition, systems under 10kw in North Carolina are also automatically eligible for NC GreenPower, a voluntary retirement program which offers $150 per SREC bundled with electricity. The most sensible path today for residential solar owners is to register in DC while the market continues to deliver SREC prices of $290. Meanwhile, since the market in DC is small and will likely be oversubscribed, the NC GreenPower program represents an excellent fall-back option. Customers do not need to register for NC GreenPower right away and may choose to register later on, perhaps some time in the future after a price drop in the DC market.

What can be done to get the NC SREC market going?

Set an SACP. For starters, the North Carolina Utilities Commission has the power to establish a compliance mechanism in the state. Doing so would create some indication of what the willingness is to pay on the part of the buyers. Sellers would then be able to properly compare the fixed-price programs being offered by Duke and Progress Energy to the alternative of selling in a market.

Limit Investor-Owned Utility Solar Development. This is a much broader debate behind the purpose of subsidizing solar. New Jersey has, in no uncertain terms, made it very clear that the intention of the SREC program is not simply to ensure that the state is running on renewable energy. The intention behind the New Jersey SREC program is to a) diversify energy resources by promoting distributed, customer-sited generation (i.e. residences and businesses producing their own electricity) and b) create jobs by developing the most robust state solar industry in the nation. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the ultimate goal of acquiring solar energy at the lowest cost possible will likely be achieved. However, if the solar is owned and developed by a few large utility companies that in many cases outsource the development to firms in other states, then a vibrant industry will most likely not develop in North Carolina the way it has in other states. Meanwhile, electricity generation in North Carolina will continue to remain the responsibility of and under the control of a few large firms, rather than distributed across the communities, the way solar resources are meant to be utilized.

Create Transparency. The unbundled SREC contracts that are currently available are handled behind closed doors with no transparency. There is no publicly available information on the prices offered and the period of time in which these prices are being offered. The more the state can do to create transparency around pricing, the easier it will be for local developers to build projects based on SREC sales. In addition to pricing transparency, if Investor-Owned Utilities continue to develop their own solar, information around their plans should be readily available so that the rest of the SREC market understands what the TRUE market demand will be. Without this, it is nearly impossible to predict the forward price curve for SRECs and build projects based on those projections.

Create Access to the Market. Limiting Investor-Owned Utilities from developing their own solar would turn them into active buyers within the market. Combined with an SACP and few restrictions around procurement, more buyers, motivated by compliance obligations, will result in easier access to the market for solar projects of all sizes.

With the launch of the North Carolina Renewable Energy Tracking System (NC-RETS), North Carolina is paving the way for what could be the future for SREC markets. For the first time, an SREC created in one region’s registry will be transferable to a buyer in another region’s registry. This cooperation amongst registries could be the first step towards a permeable nationwide SREC market.

North Carolina is currently working with other renewable energy certificate tracking systems to approve a process for importing and exporting SRECs. The approval of exporting SRECs from other tracking systems and importing them into NC-RETS would allow solar system owners located in states without viable SREC markets to sell into the North Carolina SREC market. This is all possible because almost all of the registries were built with similar technology developed by APX. More information on all of the registries can be found here: APX Primer on REC Registries.

NC-RETS is working with the parties responsible for maintaining the other regional registries to develop the importing and exporting process. Here is a list of those registries and an update on the status of importing and exporting:

NARR: The North American Renewables Registry (NARR) was developed by APX to serve the needs of states and regions that have not implemented a REC tracking system. This covers most of the Southeastern U.S., Alaska and Hawaii. NARR has already established importing/exporting procedures with NC-RETS.

MRETS: The Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS), the registry that tracks the generation of SRECs in 8 Midwest U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, has approved the exportation of SRECs and is implementing the necessary software upgrades.

GATS: Generation Attribute Tracking System covers the Mid-Atlantic states and currently tracks the majority of SREC volume due to member states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. GATS is expected to allow importing/exporting soon.

WREGIS: The Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS), the registry that tracks the generation of SRECs in 14 Western U.S. states, Baja California, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, is capable of managing exports and is in the process of making a policy decision to allow the system to export SRECs.

ERCOT: Texas, the sixth state to adopt an RPS in 1999, was the first to implement a procedure for meeting the RPS. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was the first registry of its kind. Unfortunately, it does not currently have the capability to export SRECs and it may require legislative approval to make the necessary changes to the system’s software. However, NC-RETS and APX are working with ERCOT to come up with a solution.

The DC Public Service Commission is accepting applications for facilities in ALL of North Carolina. This word comes after some initial confusion regarding the eligibility of areas adjacent to territories directly served by PJM. The DC market provides an alternative means for selling SRECs for small commercial and residential facilities in North Carolina.

Although prices in the DC market are close to $300 per SREC, the market is small. In 2010, a total of approximately 3 megawatts must be installed in order to meet the requirement. That number grows to 15 megawatts in 5 years (dwarfed in comparison by North Carolina which grows from 23 MW to 85 MW in 5 years). Considering that facilities in the entire PJM region are eligible for the DC market, it is quite possible that this market becomes oversubscribed in the future. We foresee the DC market as a viable option for smaller facilities (under 250 kW) for now, but in the long-run, it will be difficult for the solar industry in North Carolina to rely on DC legislation. The long-term solution for the North Carolina solar market hinges on the state making some changes to the current legislation that encourage the development of a real in-state SREC market.

In the meantime, SRECTrade is accepting applications from solar facilities in North Carolina. We will register the facilities in both DC and NC. SRECs will be sold in the market with the best pricing. To get your NC system signed up, just fill out our EasyREC forms here.

The North Carolina Renewable Energy Tracking System (NC-RETS) designed by APX, Inc. launched earlier this week. This will be North Carolina’s online mechanism for the issuance and tracking of SRECs. Both solar photovoltaic and solar hot water projects are eligible to receive Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) through NC-RETS, and North Carolina electricity producers will use this system to demonstrate their compliance with North Carolina’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard.

Registration of a solar project with NC-RETS requires the creation of a NC-RETS general account and prior registration of the project with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC). Projects under 1 MW will be able to self-report their energy production data into the NC-RETS system to receive SRECs, while larger projects will require a designated “Qualified Reporting Entity” with a separate NC-RETS account to upload generation data on their behalf. There are no fees associated with the creation of NC-RETS accounts, and the cost of operating the tracking system will be billed to NC electric power suppliers based on each one’s percentage of load in the state.

RECs are readily transferrable between NC-RETS accounts and will be “retired” in the accounts of NC electricity suppliers in order to demonstrate their portfolio compliance. NC-RETS also allows account holders to import SRECs from and export SRECs to tracking systems in other states. As of now, there is 2-way transferability with the North American Renewable Registry (NARR) tracking system. Transferability with PJM GATS is expected shortly and conversations are ongoing with WREGIS, ERCOT, and MRETS. There is a negligible $.01 fee per SREC exported but imports will be free.

Although there is a “bulletin board”, no financial agreements will take place on NC-RETs, and SRECTrade is accepting bids from both sellers and buyers in NC in anticipation of a North Carolina SREC auction. Our EasyREC program will streamline the process for solar power generators looking to receive and sell their SRECs efficiently in North Carolina. When a solar facility owner signs up with EasyREC, SRECTrade will quickly take care of registering the project with the NCUC and NC-RETS! As always, the solar facility owner retains ownership of all SRECs until they are sold at auction, at which point SRECTrade takes care of transferring the SRECs to the buyer through NC-RETS. Our EasyREC service also covers annual updates required for continued NCUC registration.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is set to consider strengthening the renewable portfolio standard next Tuesday. House bill 2405, known as the Clean Energy and Job bill would set the alternative compliance payment to $450, raise the ultimate solar carve out from 0.5% to 3.0% and exclude solar facilities outside of Pennsylvania from qualifying to sell into PA. These change are remarkable for a number reasons:

1. This follows states like NJ and MD who updated their renewable portfolio standards by increasing the SRECs required.

2. PA has a very unique alternative compliance payment which currently resets to twice the average trading price of SRECs in the previous year. This potentially unlimited ACP could potentially be the most forceful incentives to ensure PA utilities actually meet their RPS requirements rather than pay the fine (despite impressive solar development in NJ, NJ utilities dramatically under performed the RPS requirements and paid million in ACP fines last year).

3. It’s unclear whether or not out of state systems currently registered in PA will be grandfathered in and would certainly hinder solar development in states like VA and NC who would likely sell SRECs into PA.

Pennsylvania solar installers, solar trade groups (e.g. msiea.net) and environmental groups (e.g. PennFuture) have all come out in support of the legislation while developer and solar owners within the PJM region (PJM map) might be amongst the naysayers.

DC Eligibility
For customers looking to register systems in the DC SREC market, as we have previously stated, DC will accept applications from customers sited in the PJM regions and states adjacent to the PJM region where electricity is eligible to be transmitted into the PJM region. SRECTRADE will manage the application process for our EasyREC customers to ensure the system is approved.

DC Facility Rejections
We previously reported that a facility was rejected out of New York state and have learned that the application provided that the electricity was not capable of being transmitted into the PJM region. The DC PSC was subsequently unable to get clarification in order to approve the facility.

A second facility in New York has also been rejected because there was “no basis to conclude that the facility generates electricity consumed within the PJM Interconnection region.” We are currently seeking clarity on how these determinations are made and will post them when we have more information. In the meantime, here are some details:

DC rule 945-E-1764 (http://www.dcpsc.org/pdf_files/commorders/dcmr15/Chapter29.pdf) defines a renewable energy credit as “a credit representing one megawatt hour of electricity consumed within the PJM interconnection region that is derived from a tier 1 renewable source, a tier 2 renewable source, or a solar source that is located:

“In the PJM Interconnection region or in a state that is adjacent to the PJM Interconnection region.”

The same document describes New York as an “Adjacent PJM State” and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) as an “Adjacent Control Area”. The crux of the issue seems to be the wording “consumed within the PJM interconnection region”. Electricity flows bidirectionally between PJM and NYISO every day, the amount varying based on supply and demand in the two ISOs. An electron generated in NYISO clearly can’t be tracked (Heisenberg and all), so there is no way to know if a given electron generated by the grid-tied solar installation makes its way into PJM and is consumed. In fact there is no way to know if a given electron generated by any installation in any “Adjacent PJM State” makes its way to PJM and is consumed there, although it is possible that any electron generated in an adjacent PJM state will. Going even further, an electron generated by a system located in DC might actually be consumed outside PJM! As we see it, this leaves two choices on how to interpret the DC RPS rules. Either every grid tied generator in an “Adjacent PJM State” could be delivering their electrons to be consumed in PJM and therefore all are eligible to create DC renewable energy credits, or none can prove that their specific electrons where consumed in PJM and so none are eligible.

How far back will DC accept SREC generation?
We also get questions about systems that were installed prior to the application date in DC. Customers and installers will ask how far back DC will count solar generation for SRECs. DC will only count SRECs created in the current energy year (same as calendar year) as long as generation is inputted before the last business day in January. This means that, as of this blog post, any generation for a facility in 2009 will not count. Only generation from January 2010 onwards will be eligible for the creation of SRECs.

The PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization. It serves to connect the electricity produced by the various utilities across a region. In several states, the Renewable Portfolio Standard legislation lets utilities count renewable electricity produced within the PJM region towards meeting the state’s renewable goals.

In Pennsylvania, for example, a resident within the PJM region can apply for certification in the Pennsylvania SREC program. If your system is convered in this map, you can sell SRECs to PA!

Washington, DC is similar to Pennsylvania in that both allow SRECs from anywhere within the PJM region, however DC will also qualify facilities that are eligible to deliver their electricity into the region. This may include facilities in states that are adjacent to the PJM region such as New York or Wisconsin.

Ohio is another state that allows SRECs from out of state. In that specific case, the utilities are limited to buying 50% from out of state and only from states within the region that are contiguous: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana.

Washington, DC is similar to Pennsylvania in that both allow SRECs from anywhere within the PJM region, however DC will also qualify facilities that are eligible to deliver their electricity into the region.

For these reasons, it is important to know what constitutes the PJM region to determine whether or not you qualify. Here is a map of the region, along with the retail electricity companies who are served by PJM.

Now that APX has been selected as the platform for the NC-RETS registry to track the creation and transfer of SRECs in the state, we are gearing up for the implementation of the SREC auctions in North Carolina later this year. The registry should be implemented by July 1, meaning that systems can then begin registering and generating SRECs soon thereafter. We expect to have our first auction for NC SRECs when the market has had enough time to develop the appropriate supply of SRECs. Specific details on the rules governing the market are still to be finalized. We anticipate that the market will allow for exporting of SRECs out of NC-RETS and into other trading platforms for compliance outside of North Carolina. In addition, since NC LSEs will be allowed to count a percentage of their SRECs from out-of-state generators, we expect that there will be an option to import your SRECs from other platforms such as GATS for compliance in the NC-RETS platform. However, in-state SRECs will likely trade at a premium to out-of-state SRECs.

Many customers will ask us about registering in DC or PA first and selling there for now and then selling into NC. Our only point of caution is that your facility may be treated as an out-of-state facility if the SRECs are imported from another platform. In addition, it is unclear if you will be able to rescind registration in another registry at a later date and then re-register in NC. For this reason, we recommend that NC facilities wait to register in-state this summer before exploring opportunities out of state. This recommendation is based on there not being a dependable market in DC or NC to warrant the risk of being excluded from the NC in-state market.

Finally it is still unclear what the value of SRECs will be in NC since the NCUC has not and may not announce any penalty for non-compliance. Until clarity is reached on how the RPS will be enforced, the range of SREC values is undefined. Currently, we have heard values as low as $70/SREC and in the high $100s on the upper range. Given uncertainty in pricing, it may make sense to enter into a long-term contract at a price in this range, however, that same uncertainty drives the argument behind not entering into a long-term contract, especially if the price is below $100. Given trends we have seen in other emerging SREC markets, prices are more likely to rise above these values than drop lower than some of the prices we hear in North Carolina. The bottom line is that if you are getting $70 an SREC, it is unlikely that you will see the market trade lower than that, especially as more states come online. Whoever is buying your SRECs at that price will also stand to make a lot of money in the long run. Our advice would be to hold off if you can until there is a stronger indication in this market of what the pricing will be in the next few years. You want to avoid what happened 3 years ago in New Jersey when solar owners entered into long-term contracts at $150/SREC only to see the price go up as high as $680 in the spot market!

P.S. We have already begun signing up our first North Carolina EasyREC customers!